Tag: Dell

I have been going through some old papers recently and I found two sheets of paper with hand-written thoughts or “truisms” that I had scribbled down in early 2002. The word truism, it turns out, doesn’t mean “true” so much as it means “a statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting.” Oops. […]

I’ve seen this going around social media the past few days, an article with shocking pictures of all of the cars and trucks that have been built, only to sit in huge inventory yards around the world: “Where the World’s Unsold Cars Go To Die.” The photos are dramatic, including this one: Note: The Jalopnik […]

Following up on yesterday’s post that talked about “the old GM” putting cost ahead of quality, I sometimes I get flashbacks to my days working for General Motors. I’ve been in healthcare for 8.5 years now, but at the start of my career, I was an entry-level industrial engineer at the GM Powertrain Livonia Engine plant […]

The Philadelphia Eagles are playing in an NFL playoff matchup tonight against the New Orleans Saints. I’d admired Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and his somewhat unlikely rise through the coaching ranks. He’s well known from his successful stint at the University of Oregon, but before that he was the offensive coordinator at New Hampshire, […]

I’m not sure Google has much of a market for a $299 media player (with the AppleTV and Roku players being under $100), but it’s noteworthy that the new Google Nexus Q is made in the USA (see picture at left of the bottom of the device, click for a larger view). See this CNET […]

Regular readers know I started my career at General Motors from 1995 to 1997. After graduate school at MIT, I took a job at Dell, Inc. in 1999. At the time, Dell was at the peak of its reputation in the business world and they were inundated with requests for tours. As a staff member, […]

There has been a lot of buzz over last Sunday’s New York Times article “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work.” It’s good to see issues of manufacturing competitiveness talked about in the media and among my Facebook friends who usually aren’t talking about factories. So why aren’t iPhones assembled here in the U.S.? […]

This week, I’ve been reading and listening to a lot of articles about working conditions at the Foxconn facilities in China. These stories are primarily focused on Apple, but nearly any computer, gadget, or mobile device is made there, ranging from iPhones to Android tablets to my Kindle Fire. I have a longer blog post […]

I’ve recently had an email exchange with a retiree who is volunteering in a non-profit hospice care facility. I’m sharing this thoughts with his permission. It sounds like there’s often nothing for the volunteers to do and the leaders aren’t very keen in listening to ideas that the correspondent or their fellow volunteers have for […]

Mark’s note: You may recognize the author of this guest post, Andrew Castle, as a previous contributor and frequent commenter on my blog. I was offered a press pass to a lean event in the UK, an invite I was able to pass along to Andrew. Here is his report, the second part of four […]

Op-Ed Columnist – An American Catastrophe – NYTimes.com: This article caught my eye since I grew up outside of Detroit and my mom is still a teacher in the city. I haven’t been back in a while, but I’ve driven past the post-industrial wasteland parts of town — the abandoned factories with broken windows. You […]

Airbus Aims to Pull Back Without Stalling – WSJ.com: This recent article about Airbus talks about facing a challenge of declining airplane orders. Airbus said Friday that it booked orders for just 16 planes in March, compared with 54 orders in March 2008 and 37 orders the previous year. The company has said it may […]

Curious at Amazon, but Not Idle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com This piece about Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos made me think about visiting the “Gemba” (the Japanese term that means “the actual place” — the place where work is done). There are a few different types of Gemba visits, ranging from ineffective to helpful. Drawing […]

Eliminating He Said, She Said « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success I really like Quint Studer’s books, not just for healthcare, but as general leadership books (you can find his books on Amazon) In his most recent blog post, Studer talks about the waste that’s created by “He said / she said” […]

Dell Is Considering Selling Its Factories – Yahoo! News Dell Plans to Sell Factories In Effort to Cut Costs – WSJ.com As a former Dell employee (1999-2000), I was surprised and maybe a bit angry when they announced, earlier this year, that they were shutting down a factory I had helped open in 2000. Now, […]

Dell to close Austin plant, cutting more than 800 jobs | Statesman Business Blog I’m angry. I try not to blog when I’m angry, so I’ll try to watch my words carefully. Probably won’t succeed. This recent news hits home for me on many different levels. I was a Dell employee in 1999 and 2000, […]

I know many of you won’t have access to this article from the latest Industrial Engineer magazine (from the Institute of Industrial Engineers) but I had to comment on it anyway. The piece, by Richard Shonberger, has the headline “Faltering lean” and has a callout that says “U.S. companies are doing poorly with lean.” At […]

Sharp takes a gamble on new TV plant in Mexico – USATODAY.com Good article in the USA Today today. Sorry for the redundant redundancy there. I’m reminded of an earlier post about Olevia building some TV’s in the US. I’m also reminded of a comment that Jim Womack made in a podcast of mine (I […]